Life Discovered
by mkras
Summary: What if Cate didn't give up her baby for adoption? What if Lux, now 16 years old, wants to find out who her biological father was?
1. Chapter 1

Hi guys. I'm not sure if this a good idea or not, so let me know if you want me to continue. Also, I'm not that happy with the title, so that might change over the next few weeks if I can think of something better. Anyway, thanks for reading, and hopefully you'll enjoy it.

* * *

_Chapter 1_

An alarm clock goes off and a sleepy blond haired teenager reluctantly gets up. She grabs whatever pieces of clothing she can find from her floor or sprawled across her bed and lazily puts them on wherever they seem to fit.

Her eyes are barely open when she makes her way downstairs and the smell of burning bacon fills her nostrils. As she reaches the kitchen she's confronted with a woman desperately trying to peel something off the bottom of a smoking fry pan. Lux smiles.

"Mum…what _are_ you doing?"

Cate looks up, her face is flushed and she looks completely frustrated. "Honey, I'm so sorry. I was trying to cook you breakfast in bed…" She trails off, offering her daughter a weak smile.

Lux moves into the kitchen next to her mother and pokes at the black stuff on the bottom of the pan. "I will never be able to understand how you are able to burn things so badly."

"It's a gift." Cate retorts before giving her daughter a hug. "Happy Birthday."

Lux hugs her back and smiles. "Happy? Not so much mum. Try hungry."

"Right. Food. There isn't really much in the fridge at the moment… I was supposed to go grocery shopping this afternoon." Cate furrows her brow as she realises they have no suitable food to eat.

Lux opens up the fridge and has a new found understanding of the word empty. Only one thing catches her eye.

"What about this?" Lux asks, turning around with her birthday cake in her hand.

"Cake for breakfast?" Cate says, clearly not enthused.

"Yeah, my birthday, my choice." Lux states, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well I guess…but only one slice each." Cate relents, taking the box from her daughter and placing it on the counter top. She retrieves a knife and opens the box.

"Are you sure you don't want to leave this for tonight?" Cate asks, hoping.

"Nope." Lux says smiling angelically up at her mother.

* * *

The cake box is now empty and they both sit slumped down against the kitchen cabinet.

"Too…much…cake…" Lux says, rubbing her belly.

"I told you." Cate says, also feeling the effects of the rich strawberry cake.

"I didn't say it was a bad thing. Just…a lot." Lux closes her eyes. She always feels sleepy after she has eaten a lot.

"Well well well, what do we have here."

Both mother and daughter jump in surprise at the voice.

Lux looks up and feigns annoyance at the intruder. "Ryan don't sneak up on us like that."

"Hey, I did no sneaking. You were the ones that were hiding." Ryan bends down and gives Lux a hug. "Happy birthday kiddo."

"Thanks Ry." Lux says smiling into his shoulder. "And for the record we weren't hiding, we're just…really full."

Standing back up, Ryan looks down at the teenage girl questioningly.

She motions to the empty box, with only a few pinkish crumbs left. A wave of realisation hits Ryan's face. "Oh. Well thanks for saving me some."

"We did. There's still some left." Cate speaks up, a slyness in her tone.

"Where?" Ryan asks, looking around the kitchen.

"Here." She says smiling widely, pointing at the pink in her teeth.

"Oh very funny." Ryan smiles, then suddenly his face turns a little serious. "…Well I am really hungry." He quickly bends down, grabbing Cate before she can get away.

"No..don't you dare." She squeals with laughter before his lips are attacking hers.

"Ugh…not in front of the kid please." Lux says getting up and moving away from the two adults on the floor. They both ignore her and Ryan continues to tickle Cate, trying to get his lips to hers again.

"I'm gonna go watch some TV."

She flops down on the couch flicking through the channels. She decides on some little kids cartoon, not really watching it. Her mind drifts elsewhere… She's been thinking about it for a while now - well she's always thought about it, but recently it's been more so.

Her dad.

The subject has never really been properly breached. Not that Cate wouldn't tell her, it just never seemed that important. After all, she had a father figure in her life - Ryan. But for some reason, something inside of her had sparked a curiosity.

What does he look like? Where is he now? Does he have a wife or kids? Could she be a half-sister?

Why doesn't she know him?

The most Lux has been told is that her mother met her father at high school where she-Lux, was at some point conceived. They didn't really know each other very well which is why it didn't work out. And that was about it. Not very much, huh?

Well, tonight that would change. Tonight she would ask her mum about her biological father. That would be her one birthday wish.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank-you everyone for the great feedback.

* * *

_Chapter 2_

"Have a wonderful day," Cate says waving goodbye to Lux. She doesn't drive away immediately, instead she stays parked, staring at her retreating daughter, all golden hair and skinny frame wrapped up in a parker coat, jeans and beanie.

_Her daughter._

Sometimes it just hits her all at once, how easily that may have not been the case. How different her life could have been, not that she would change anything. It was actually quite the contrary in moments like these. Cate's love only grew more, if that was possible, and the thought of not having Lux in her life made her grow more protective and fierce.

Nobody could question Cate Cassidy's love and devotion to her daughter.

* * *

"Lux! Lux!"

The blond teenager turns from her locker smiling when she sees who it is. The shouting voice continues, "Happy birthday! Happy biiirrtthhddaayyy!!"

Jones reaches his girlfriend before throwing his arms out. Lux obliges, jumping into his arms while he repeats his earlier mantra, "Happy birthday, babe." This time, though, it's more of a whisper.

They break apart and it's then she sees the flowers he's holding. He follows her eyes and realises what she's staring at.

"For you." He hands the daffodils to her.

"My favourite…they're beautiful." Lux fills her noses with the flowers beautiful scent.

"Can I walk you to home room ma' lady?" He's tried to put on some sort of English accent and has his arm out in front of her.

"Why certainly." Lux says playing along. They both laugh.

However, they try to keep the little role-play going as he takes her arm in his and they walk off smiling, ever the perfect couple, to home room.

* * *

That night, after her birthday dinner and presents, Lux turns to her mum. Ryan has gone up to take a shower.

"Can we talk for a bit?" Cate's wiping over the kitchen counter but pauses to look up at her daughter.

"Yeah sure. What's up?"

"Uhh..you might want to sit down for this."

Cate's face turns weary. "What's wrong Lux?"

"No nothing, well nothing bad I don't think. Can you just sit down on the couch with me?" Lux doesn't wait for a response, instead she turns and sits down on one of the big sofas in their living room.

She can hear Cate's footsteps moving closer and inhales a breath, trying to get rid of the butterflies in her stomach.

Cate sits down beside her, clearly worried. Lux stays silent for a moment and Cate waits silently for her daughter to say something.

Finally Lux speaks up, her voice is soft. "Who's my real dad?"

Cate's face contorts for a second as she processes what her daughter has just asked her. Lux doesn't say anything.

"Well, look Lux, I know I said that we could always talk openly about this, and whatever you wanted to know I would tell you…" Cate pauses, taking a long breath, "Can I just ask, why now? I mean I always knew you would want to know one day…"

"Honestly mum? I'm curious. I mean was he a nice guy? Was he a jerk? Was he ugly or handsome or average or short or tall or fat or ridiculously skinny?" Lux stops, kind of running out of breath.

"I know, I get it. And I will tell you. Only can I ask you one more thing?"

Lux nods.

"Do you want to meet him?" Cate asks, her voice not giving away any type of detest or approval.

"Uh…" Lux falls silent. She actually hadn't considered that. Did she want to meet him? I mean, sure she did - kind of. But the thought scared her.

"Maybe, I don't know. Not for right now. I just want to know what he was like. What he looked like, that type of thing."

Cate lets out a small sigh of relief. It's something she doesn't really mean to, or even consciously realises she does. Lux notices it however, but tries to ignore it.

"Okay, that I can do." Cate gives a small reassuring pat on Lux's knee.

* * *

"So he was a jock? Really? And he went out with you?" Lux is laughing.

"Hey, I wasn't that bad." Cate says adamantly.

"No no, I'm just joking." Lux says, realising her bluntness. "It's just that, well, I've seen your yearbook photos mum, and you're not…well, you kind of looked like a bookworm. 'Nigel no friends' if you will."

"Harsh Lux, harsh."

"Just saying it like it is." Lux pokes out her tongue.

"Anyway, Nate didn't technically go out with me. We didn't really talk that much to be honest."

"Wait, so you guys weren't even dating."

"No.."

"But you had se… somehow made a baby?"

"Okay, I can't believe I'm telling you this but… look, in my defence it was Winter Formal - my date had dumped me for a drunk cheerleader and his date had been MEDEVACed to the hospital. I'd had a really big crush on him for years, and we were both a little tipsy…" Cate pauses and cringes a little, her mind continuing silently with the story.

"Mum. Just tell me." Lux nudges her mum lightly on the shoulder, breaking her out of her internal monologue.

"Okay, so basically we found we both had a mutual like for the Spin Doctors and the next second we were in his mum's minivan singing along to one of their songs...he had a really disarmingly charming smile, ya' know? And those eyes, I always liked his eyes, they were always so blue..." Cate realises she's gone off on a tangent and quickly shakes herself out of it. "Anyway, that's as far as I'm going. You are my daughter after all."

"So I was conceived during a high school dance in the back of a minivan." Lux says, clearly not impressed.

"That you were my dear." Cate says patting the shoulder of her non-plussed daughter.

"Okay, so my immaculate conception is no longer a mystery - but when did you find out you were pregnant with me? How did you tell Nate?"

"Well basically I missed my period and knew something was up because up until that point, I'd had a pretty regular cycle."

"Ew mum, seriously? Too much information." Lux's says disgusted.

Cate feigns a look of surprise, "What, so now it's too much information. Before you couldn't seem to get enough."

"Yeah well the content was a little different."

Cate smiles, "Anyway, I bought a pregnancy test and it came out positive, so I went and bought another and another, until I was surrounded with about 10 white sticks all with little pink tops. I couldn't even cry. By the time I really accepted that I was pregnant I was so exhausted from running to the shop and back that all I could do was fall into my bed and sleep." Cate pauses to take a breath and regather her thoughts.

"So the next day was monday and I knew I had to tell Baze. I mean he was the father and he deserved to know. I looked for him the whole day but he must have had football practice or something because I didn't find him till after school and by then I'd stopped looking for him. It was in the school parking lot, and I had been waiting for my mum, he had been was as well…"

Cate can feel her throat turn a little dry at the thought of what came next. But she wants to try and put up a strong front for her daughter, so she keeps going.

"And then I told him. He was really, really shocked at first, then he kind of denied it. Then he just cried. I didn't really know what to do, so I just hugged him. It was really awkward because he was so tall and I had never really comforted a boy before. Then when we broke apart again, he was kind of mumbling about how this was going to mess everything up, how he was scared and how his father was going to kill him. I kind of got angry at this point. Did he really think that I wanted to be pregnant at 16?" Cate stops realising her daughter has a sad look in her eyes.

"Hey, we can stop if you want. I'm sorry babe. I didn't mean to upset you. I just, I wanted to tell you the truth…maybe I should've left that out…"

"No no, I'm not sad about that. I get it mum. You were 16, I don't blame you. Plus, you kept my anyway, so it's all good." Lux gives her a reassuring smile.

"Alright, but if you start crying, I stop." Cate says smiling back at her daughter, however her eyes are laced with worry.

"Okay, so before me and Baze could really get into it, like talking about what this means, his mum turned up. He says he was sorry or something and that he would call me…" This time Cate's eyes turn sad, but also angry and hurt. "But he never did. And when I tried to talk to him the next day at school he completely ignored me."

"I'm sorry mum."

"It's fine really. That was a long time ago. It's in the past now. But after that I didn't bother with him. When I told my mum, she was so supportive. I had considered adoption at one point, but your grandma was the one that convinced me to keep you. As I've already told you, I had you between junior and senior year. I only missed a week of senior year and to be honest, no one even noticed."

"So you never told Baze about me…"

"…No I didn't."

Lux takes a moment to digest this information. Cate waits but then tries to justify, "It's just that it was clear he wanted nothing to do with me, and I was angry. I was so angry at him. I did try though, at the beginning of senior year, but he would just ignore me. And I just couldn't take it anymore…"

"Yeah I understand mum, I'm just not sure how to feel now."

Cate leans in and kisses her daughter on the forehead. "Just know that I love you so much."

Lux closes her tired eyes, letting out a deep breath. This night had not turned out at all like she had hoped.

"I love you too mum."

* * *

Love it, hate it? Continue or stop? Something you want to see happen? Let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

So I know it says this is a Baze/Cate fic, and for clarification, it really is. I know that there hasn't been any interaction between them yet, but there will be - not in this chapter, but the next one. Just thought I'd let everyone know, so we're on the same page.

Anyway, here's the next update. I'm so glad people are enjoying this.

* * *

_Chapter 3_

And so life went on.

It was exactly three weeks since Cate had told Lux about Nathaniel Bazile. Who, honestly, hadn't turned out to be anything like she had expected, or hoped. He wasn't a good guy.

So Lux decided to move on, forget about him. After all, she didn't need him - she had gotten on fantastically for 16 years without him, and that's how it would continue to be.

Or at least that's what she thought.

* * *

The day started off relatively normally. She got up, dressed for school, ate breakfast and then Cate drove her to school.

"I'll pick you up this afternoon, around 3:30?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Love you." Lux hopped out of her mum's silver volvo and walked quickly towards the school building. As she reached the main doors she heard the bell ring. She was late, again.

She got to her locker and quickly shoved her bag inside. She grabbed the books she needed for the next two classes and was just about to close her locker when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Umm, excuse me." She slightly jumped but quickly turned around and was met with a giant man. Well not literally a giant, but he was really tall. His dark hair was all messy and he looked completely lost and a little frazzled.

He quickly apologised for scaring her, then asked where the main office was. "You know, it's changed since I went here."

Lux gave him a polite smile. "If you just go down that way and take your first right, that should take you to where you want to go."

"Thanks." He smiled down at the teenage girl, before turning in the direction she had given and walked off.

Not thinking anymore of it, Lux all but ran to her first class. _Damn't, I'm going to be so late._

_

* * *

_

"Lux, so happy you could grace us with your presence."

Lux gave her teacher an awkward smile before sidling quickly into the nearest desk and chair. "Sorry Miss Easton."

"Well don't worry, you haven't missed anything. You're just lucky our guest speaker today is late too. So anyway as I was saying…"

"Psst."

Lux turned around. It was Melanie.

"Did you hear about Jason and Karen?" Melanie was the biggest gossip in the world. "He tooottallly cheated on her with Naomi and now they're broken up."

"Wow Mel, it's amazing how much I don't care." Lux cringed up her nose.

Melanie poked her tongue out at Lux before both girls laughed it off.

"Would you care to tell the whole class what is so amusing? Lux? Melanie?" Both girls stayed silent, heads faced down to their notebooks, trying to stifle their giggles.

Before Miss Easton could get on their case anymore, there was a knock on the door.

"Ahh that will be our guest speaker for today." The teacher sounded a little too excited as she walked quickly over to the door.

Lux was taken by surprise when the guest speaker walked into the room. It was the man from before.

What was even more weird was the way her teacher was looking at him. Like he was some piece of candy or chocolate. He kind of stood there a little awkwardly waiting for the teacher to introduce him or something. Seeing that she wasn't he cleared his throat hoping that would give her the hint.

It did. "Ohh sorry, umm right. Everyone, this is Mr Bazile. He is here, as one of the many guest speakers you have had over the last few weeks, to talk about careers and your life after high school."

"Hi guys." He raised his arm in a wave, and gave them all a wide grin. "You can call me Baze."

"He's cute." Melanie whispered, leaning forward so only Lux could hear.

"So I'm here to talk to you about careers or something like that. Well, I remember being in your shoes. I actually attended Westmonte back in the day. Actually me and your teacher here were in the same year." He turned to look back at Miss Easton, who had gone a little pink in the cheeks. She was smiling though.

Lux wasn't really listening at this point. She didn't really care about these guest speakers - she didn't need some stranger telling her how she should live her life. Although she did notice her teacher become visibly all lovey dovey towards this guy. _Weird_.

Had he said they'd gone to school together or something?

"Anyway, I loved school and when it came time to leave, I still had no idea what I wanted to do. So what I did was take a gap year. I'm not sure if any of the previous guest speakers have discussed this with you, or partook in it as well, but basically a gap year is just that. A year where you don't go to school or university and you can basically just chill." The teacher cleared her throat a little too obviously. "Okay, well not just chill, get a part-time or full-time job, and try to figure out what it is you really want to do."

"Is it me or is he like really, in the sexiest possible way, ridiculously tall?" Melanie again gave her commentation into the ear of Lux, who was simply trying to ignore her.

"Eventually I decided that University would never be for me, and I also knew that I didn't want to work for someone. I wanted to be my own boss. So naturally I went into business. I leased a building, which you may now know as Open Bar."

"Your job is owning and running a bar?" One teenager asked.

"Yes it is."

"That's awesome!" A guy in the back shouted out.

"Yeah it is pretty awesome." Baze replied, feeling confident. "So is there anymore questions?"

"Did you and Miss Easton ever go out?" A girl in the front row asked before all her girlfriends around her started giggling.

Miss Easton turned a bright shade of red before Baze answered, pretty smoothly. "No, I never had the pleasure."

As the kids kept asking Baze stupid questions, Lux had thoroughly tuned out. She was looking around the classroom, trying to find something worth looking at, when her eyes met _his._ She didn't know what it was, but for some reason it triggered something inside of her. A thought rushed into her brain.

It was something that made her stomach drop and her mouth turn dry. It hadn't really registered before, but hadn't her mother gone to school with Miss Easton…and so had this guy. Wait what was his name?

"Can I have your number?" Melanie asked boldly, before everyone started wooing.

Baze let out an awkward laugh before ruffling his hair, trying to think of how to avoid the question.

Miss Easton quickly took back control of the classroom and was quieting the teenagers. "So I think that pretty much raps it up. Please put your hands together in thanks for Mr Bazile for coming in his own time to talk to you."

_Bazile. Nathaniel Bazile. It couldn't be…_

'…_It was really awkward because he was so tall and I had never really comforted a boy before…'_

'…_I always liked his eyes, they were always so blue.'_

Everyone clapped as the tall dark-haired man with startling blue eyes did a little bow, smiling widely before leaving the classroom.

Well, everyone except for the blond girl sitting in the front row who looked like she'd just seen a ghost.

* * *

She was waiting in the car park. Cate was late, but that wasn't unusual.

Finally she saw the silver volvo turn into the parking lot and she quickly got up. The car pulled in right next to her and Lux got in.

"How was school?"

There was really no going around it. Lux had to tell her.

"Mum… I don't think you're going to believe this..."

Cate chanced a quick glance sidewards at her daughter. "What?" She tried to hide the worry behind her voice.

"Well…umm, I think the guest speaker at my school today was Baze..like biological father Baze."

"What!?" Cate turned to her fully to see if she was joking. She clearly wasn't.

"Mum - watch out!" Lux screamed as Cate nearly ran a red light. She slammed down the break and they were both propelled forwards in their chairs.

Cate took a deep breath, her eyes were shut tightly closed. "Are you sure?"

Lux hesistated, "Well I'm not 100% sure, but it seemed to add up to it being him."

"What do you mean, add up?"

"Well he was really tall, he had dark hair, and really blue eyes…and his last name was Bazile, at least that's what I think I heard."

"Oh my god." Cate looked completely bewildered, "I can't believe this."

"Look mum, it might not have been him."

"No I think it was Lux. And I'm sorry, that was not that way you should've met your father..."

They both fell into silence, neither really knowing what to say. They were silent for the rest of the car trip but just as they parked in the garage, Cate turned to Lux.

"I think you need to meet him, properly."

"Are you sure? I mean, I don't know if I even want to?"

"Lux, after what has just happened, it'd seem somehow wrong if you didn't now."

"But he's not the type of person I want to meet mum. Seriously, he doesn't seem like a good person."

"Was he rude at school?"

"Well no, he seemed alright - he was pretty laid back. But I'm talking about when you guys were in high school. He seemed like a real jerk."

Cate sighed, "Lux, people change. And I shouldn't have painted such a bad picture of him. He was 16, like me, and I really didn't know him that well. Sure what he did to me wasn't right, but he was naive and scared."

"You were young too mum, and scared, but you didn't run away."

"To be honest, I didn't have the option. You were inside me, I couldn't run away."

"Would you have?"

"Honestly Lux? I'd like to think I wouldn't. I definitely know I wouldn't have acted like him. And I know without a doubt that I love you and wouldn't want my life any other way. But I can kind of see why he did what he did, even despite how messed up it was…"

"What makes you think he'll even want to meet me?" Lux said it quietly.

"He might not, but I know you're curious about this Lux, and you have absolutely every right to be. I also know that deep down you do want to meet him but you feel scared. And you know what? You don't need to be, because no matter what you will always have me, and Ryan."

"Yeah I know that… I'll think about it, okay?"

Cate nodded and kissed Lux on the forehead.

They both got out of the car and walked inside. Lux lagged behind a little, she felt so tired.

* * *

When she got inside, Cate had already turned all the lights on, but it was unusually quiet. "Where's Ryan?"

"He's doing some hosting thing at a Charity event - he won't be home till late." Cate called from somewhere in the house.

Lux followed the voice to the kitchen. "Oh I'm kind of glad, I didn't really feel like explaining it all over again."

Cate had started to get some ingredients out of the fridge for dinner. She could easily see the look of exhaustion across Lux's face, "Go and have a lie down. I'll call you down when dinner's ready."

"Alright, thanks." Lux said gratefully.

She slowly assembled the ladder up into her room and lay down on her bed. She loved her room, it was like an escape - a place where she could get away from it all. And right about now, that sounded perfect. She went back over her day and thought about how she had gotten to this point. How had all these things happened in the course of 8 or so hours? After a while she could feel her mind slowly winding down as she found it harder and harder to keep her eyes open and and keep her mind focused on a particular part of the day.

Before long she was fast asleep.

* * *

The next morning she trudged down stairs. It was a Saturday, and Cate and Ryan were already sitting at the table eating breakfast. As she walked into the room, they both stopped reading their newspapers and looked up at her.

The look in Ryan's eyes told Lux that Cate had already told him about what happened.

"Morning Lux," Ryan said gently.

"Morning." Lux said sitting down at the table and filling up an empty bowl with cereal.

"So, I heard about yesterday." Ryan said carefully.

Lux picked up the milk and poured it over her crispy flakes, "Yeah, pretty eventful huh?" She gave him an ironic grin.

"Well if you need anything."

"Yeah, I know. Thanks Ry."

"So I know it's only been a night, but have you got any idea what you want to do?" Cate spoke for the first time, she kept a close eye on Lux's physical reaction.

Cate could tell she was clearly uncomfortable, and not really in the right mindset yet to make a decision. Before Lux had to say anything Cate added assuringly, "If you don't, that's fine. You take as much time as you need."

Lux gave Cate a small smile, "Yeah I know mum. I thought about it a lot last night. If I'm being honest, I think I do want to meet him. Not to even have a relationship with him, but just to properly meet my biological father…"

"Well, whatever you want, I'm happy with." Cate said as reassuringly as possible. However, deep down, she was feeling anything but reassured.

Seeing Baze again? There was a reason she had never attended a reunion in her life, and why she avoided anything to do with high school all together. She felt a mix of guilt, confusion and frustration at herself for never telling him. But right or wrong, that was the decision she had made. And for the sake of Lux, she had kept with it. Consistency is vital in raising a child. You don't want them to have a life of moving here and there and never feeling secure.

She had no idea how she would approach this if Lux decided she definitely wanted to meet Baze. What was she going to do? Ring him up? 'Oh hey Baze, remember me? I'm the girl you knocked up in high school who, by the way, didn't have an abortion like she implied. So yeah, you have a daughter you've never met, but who wants to meet you now.'

Cate grimaced at the thought. She suddenly realised she'd gotten lost in her head and quickly focussed back onto her daughter.

"Are you alright mum?"

"Yeah, sorry honey what were you saying?"

"Nothing. Just that I'll think about it."

_BEEP BEEP._

Lux motioned to get up. "That's Jones. He's giving me a lift this morning," she explained.

"Alright, well have a good day." Cate gave her daughter the best smile she could. Hopefully it didn't seemed too forced. "Wait, have you got your lunch?" Cate added quickly.

Lux was already halfway to the door. "Yeah. I'll see you this afternoon. You too Ryan."

"See ya Lux." Ryan shouted as Lux was already out the door.

He turned to Cate. "What's going on in there." He motioned to her head.

She let out a long breath, "Honestly babe, I don't know what to do. If she does want to meet him…I mean he doesn't even know she exists."

"We'll work it out, together." He took her hand in his.

"I know, it's just… he's going to hate me. And he has every right to but-"

"No Cate, this is not your fault. He was an idiot and you did the best that you could given the circumstances. But that's in the past now… this is about Lux."

"You're right. I'll just take whatever he gives me and hopefully that will be enough. I just don't want this to backfire onto Lux." Cate said exasperatedly.

"It's just the risk you're going to have to take. And Lux also." Ryan rubbed Cate's back. "Look, don't worry yourself about it. She might not even decide that she wants to meet him."

"I know Ryan, but now that she's got me thinking about it. Maybe he does deserve to know. I mean, he has a daughter…she is a part of him, if only genetically."

"Well whatever you decide, I'll be here for you and Lux."

Cate smiled gratefully at him. "You're so great, you know that?"

"Well, it is the reason you're marrying me."

"That's not the only reason." Cate gave him a sly smile, pushing Baze and secret illegitimate daughters to the back of her mind.

"I like where you're going with this." They're both slowly leaning in to each other.

As their lips touched, everything else seemed to fall away.

Cate didn't want this kiss to end. She didn't want to have to face the reality that lay after this kiss.

When they broke a part, he whispered softly, "I love you Cate Cassidy."

All she could do was smile.


	4. Chapter 4

Oh my god. I am so so so so sorry for how long this took to update. It didn't have anything to do with writer's block or anything like that. It was just more to do with time. You know, exams and all that boring stuff. But I hope to have a few more chapters churned out before I start my next assignment. I also have to apologise for the length of this chapter, but the next one will be longer.

And as always, reviews are appreciated :-)

* * *

_Chapter 4_

It hadn't taken Lux very long to find Nathaniel Bazile. It was a simple search through the White pages to B, and from there all his details lay before her. Apparently, not only did he own a bar, but he lived above it too.

She found the place pretty easily. It was along one of the main roads in town. Obviously the bar was closed as it was morning, but she knocked anyway.

Lux felt bad going behind Cate's back about this, but she saw how uncomfortable her mum got when she mentioned that she wanted to meet Baze. So she figured this was the best way. And she kind of felt like this was something she wanted to do on her own.

Lux waited and waited. After a while she knocked again and pressed her ear against the door listening for any signs of life on the other side. Finally she heard some voices and footsteps. She gave another knock, just in case.

It only took another moment before the door swung open.

"Hey." It was him. _Her dad._ She could tell that he recognised her, but wasn't quite sure why. "Wait, have we met before?"

"Uh no, well kind of…" Lux paused before continuing. "You came to my school for a careers talk."

"Oh right. You're the one who helped me with directions." Baze said, a broad smile appearing across his face.

"Right, yeah that's me…" Lux trailed off. Suddenly her whole plan didn't seem like such a good idea anymore. How was she supposed to tell him?

"_Is that the beer guy?" _She heard a male voice yell from within the bar.

"Nah man." Baze turned back in towards the bar and shouted back.

Lux took a quick breath in and out._ She could totally make a run for it right now. _

No, she shook herself mentally, taking a deep breath. She wanted to tell him.

He turned towards her again and smiled. "So what can I do for you…-"

"Lux." She offered quickly.

"Lux, okay I'm Baze. Wait, is it even me you're looking for?"

She nodded.

"Not very talkative are you."

She took a breath. It was now or never. "Look Baze. I think… well I'm pretty sure you're my father." Just like a band aid.

Baze gave her an incredulous look and started laughing, nervously. Lux could see two guys standing at the bar, looking at her.

Baze turned around. "Nice one guys."

"What?" The guy with glasses said, genuinely confused.

"Oh shut up Math, you're a terrible liar." Baze said, not yet turning back toward the girl.

Math started to walk towards Baze, leaving the other guy standing at the bar. "What's wrong?"

"Jamie.." Baze said, peering over Math to his other friend.

Jamie put his hands up. "No idea what your crazy ass is going on about." He turned and headed back up to the loft.

Lux was fed up. If he wasn't even going to take this seriously, take _her_ seriously, well obviously he hadn't changed at all.

"Look. I don't care if you believe me or not. I'm your daughter… that's what I came here to say." Her voice sounded angrier than she intended. Baze turned back to her, and his face had taken on this look of pure confusion and shock. Lux imagined this was how he had looked when Cate had told him she was pregnant.

She waited but he didn't say anything. His friend with the glasses was standing behind him, also looking about as shocked as Baze.

"Right then." Lux said exasperated. "This was clearly a waste of my time."

She gave him one last look, her eyes willing him to say something, before turning away. As she walked down the street, a small part of her hoped that she would hear her name being called, and footsteps running towards her. Maybe a hand on her shoulder.

But there was nothing.

No footsteps, no hand, no nothing.

She swallowed hard, and tried to push away the embarrassment she felt at her own father's rejection.

Never again would she allow _him_ to have that power over her again.

She felt a sting in the corner of her eyes, as hot tears started to fall. She rubbed them away angrily and picked up her pace.


	5. Chapter 5

So here it is. Quicker and longer, as promised. Reading your reviews make my day :-)

* * *

_Chapter 5_

He watched her go, but felt his own feet glued to the ground.

By the time Math found his voice and was blubbering on incomprehensibly, Baze regained control of his body and ran out on the street.

But it was too late. She was gone.

"What the hell is going on?" Math said, finally putting together a proper sentence.

Baze looked back at his friend, and walked back in off the streets. "...I have a daughter?"

"Dude…you have a daughter?" Both men looked at the other, unable to come to grips with the situation.

"This isn't possible…" Baze said, voicing his internal monologue.

"Well, she looked about..what - 15..16?" Math said, his face scrunched up trying to work out what time frame they were working with. "So that's… high school?"

"It's definitely high school. Remember I gave a talk at Westmonte the other day - she was in that class."

* * *

"So who did you get pregnant in high school?" Math said, not quite grasping the words he was saying, or believing them. They had moved up to Baze's loft.

Baze furrowed his brow in concentration. "It couldn't have been Melanie, because she was never fat, and we were doing it like all the time during our senior year."

"She could have had the baby after you finished high school." Math suggested.

"Nah, that would make Lux in her sophomore year, and she's definitely a junior."

"So this immaculate conception happened when…? Sometime between junior and senior year?"

Baze nodded.

They both stood in silence, thinking over Baze's sexual conquests of 93. There were a few, to say the least. But none that would make sense, or even be a possibility.

Then Baze remembered.

"Cate…" The name dropped from his lips, barely audible.

"Who?" Math said, perking up at a name.

"That Cate girl. Remember? Bookworm nerd." Baze said, a look of incredulity spreading over his face.

"Are you serious?" Math's voice took on a weird tone.

"Yeah." Baze said slowly, eyeing his friend cautiously.

"Cate Cassidy. Valedictorian. Perfect 4.0…Class of '94 Cate Cassidy?" Math said, his voice rising as he spoke.

Baze nodded.

"She never would have slept with you! She hated you. You were everything she despised. I mean, you weren't her type, and she…well she was so far from your type.."

"Well, she was my type the night of Winter Formal." Baze quipped, winking at his friend.

"Unbelievable." Math sighed, standing up.

"What?" Baze said, completely unaware.

"Nothing Baze. Absolutely _nothing._" Math deadpanned. Before Baze could respond, he had already walked through the door and back down to the bar.

"What's his problem..." Baze whispered roughly under his breath.

He fell back onto one of the sofas, quickly forgetting about his friend's weird mood change.

_He had a daughter._

He didn't know what to think, or feel.

What was one supposed to _feel_ when they found out they had a kid they never knew about? He always assumed that Cate had taken care of it? Not the best choice of words, but still. What the hell was a 16 year old girl doing showing up at his doorstep, claiming him as her father?

He couldn't be a father when he was 17, and he sure as hell couldn't be one now.

She did have blond hair though, which didn't really make sense, seeing as both he and Cate had very dark hair.

Maybe that girl wasn't his. Maybe Cate had…gotten around in high school. After all, she had slept with him even though they had barely known each other.

Baze knew there was only one person who could make sense of this all. Who could answer all the questions currently buzzing around his head. And luckily he thought, as he turned on the radio and heard her voice, he knew exactly where she was.

* * *

"Cate, it's a simple question."

"And one that I'm not answering. How about we put it out to our listeners?" Cate said smiling.

"Fine." Ryan pouted a little. "So, what was your nickname in high school? We want to know, embarrassing or not. Although, embarrassing is preferred."

* * *

"I need to get in there. I have to speak to Cate. Cate Cassidy."

"Yes, and I'm only going to say this one more time. Ms Cassidy is currently busy."

"Obviously, she's hosting a radio show, but what about in the ad breaks. Can't I just sneak in there and ask her a quick question? _It's important._"

"You were standing in front of me when I called the manager, who asked Cate, who said she couldn't as she was _busy_."

"Well, when does her segment thing finish?" Baze said, exasperated.

"In about an hour."

"And there's absolutely no way -"

"No! Now go away, before I have to make you." The security guy took a step forward.

"Fine." Baze said, glaring towards the man as he retreated back to his car.

As he sat there, tapping impatiently on his wheel, Cate and Ryan's voice filled his ears.

"….how about we put it out to our listeners?"

"Fine… So, what was your nickname in high school? We want to know, embarrassing or…" Baze stopped listening to whatever the guy was saying when an idea popped into his head. He never was one for waiting.

Grabbing his phone out of his pocket, he punched in the numbers that Cate was repeating over air and pressed the phone to his ear. He waited with bated breath, hoping that his call was put through first. After a few rings, someone picked up on the other end.

"Hi there. You've called Morning Madness."

"Hey, this is Baze. Actually Nate. Yeah Nate." He didn't want the risk of Cate recognising the name and not answering the call.

"Okay Nate. I'm assuming your calling in response to the high school nickname?"

"Yeah that's right."

"Okay cool. What was it?"

"Oh, um it was…Baze." He finished lamely.

The lady on the other end paused.

"Yes well. That's um.. Your name. Did you have a _nick_name?"

"Oh right.. Yeah totally, it was umm," Baze panicked, trying to think of something, "Bunny….chops.." He cringed, realising how stupid he must sound.

"Bunny chops?" The lady repeated. He could imagine the smirk that must have been plastered across her face right now.

"Yeah Bunny chops."

"Alright then. I'll put you on hold now but stay on the line, and I'll put you through to Cate and Ryan in a few minutes."

"Okay thanks." Baze said quickly, before he was greeted with the sound of a soft piano and guitar.

He allowed himself to relax for a second, trying to gather his thoughts. Should he be doing this over air? Probably not. But she did refuse to see him. And the matter at hand was not something to be ignored. Anyway, she deserved it - she was the one that had kept the secret of him having a daughter for 16 years. Yeah, he was totally justified. He could get answers and payback all at the same time.

_What was that saying about the two birds and one stone again?_

Then suddenly her voice was filling his ears.

"So now we have Nate on the line, who's nickname is a bit strange, to say the least. Nate, would you like to do the honour?"

Silence.

"Uh Nate, you there buddy?" Ryan spoke into the mic.

Baze finally found his voice. He gave a cough, clearing his throat. "Yeah I'm here."

"Okay, so what was your nickname?"

All of a sudden, he felt a little nervous. The words he had come up with while on hold were gone, and the only word that came to him was -

"Cate."

"Alright then. That wasn't what was written on the screen but that's okay. So Nate, you've gone through a few _changes_ since high school?" Cate said, giving a smile to Ryan.

"No. Cate, it's _Baze_." He regained a little more confidence, and smirked when he could practically hear her jaw drop.

Cate and Ryan immediately looked at each other, a mirror image of shock. Before the silence became deafening, Cate managed to splutter out, "Ba-baze? What are you… I mean why…?"

Realising his fiance was struggling, Ryan quickly took over. "So Baze. You realise we're on air, right?"

Baze sat comfortably in his car seat, "Yeah. I need to talk to Cate."

Cate could only look at Ryan, her eyes pleading with him to do something. Make this _okay._

"Right well, do you think you could wait, I don't know, say half an hour till we finish the show?" Ryan had never met Baze, but whatever _he_ was up to right now, Ryan sensed had the potential of turning very bad, very quickly.

"Okay. Well can I just ask one thing before I go?" Baze said, determined to get those answers. And that payback.

"If you don't mind Baze we've got a few other calls to go to so -" Ryan said quickly looking over to Alice, the radio station manager, motioning at her to hang up the call. But she was shaking her head.

Ryan looked at her perplexed, "-so um…" He lost his train of thought. Why wouldn't Alice hang up?

Luckily, Cate finally spoke up, "We'll be talking soon enough Baze, you can ask me any question you want _off_ the air."

This time Cate looked over at Alice, her eyes shooting daggers. However, she couldn't see her radio station manager, only a piece of paper with writing.

_Let him ask the question._

Before Cate could say or do anything more, Ryan had gotten up and stormed into the connected room. "What do you think you're doing Alice?"

"The call lines are going crazy Ryan. They all want to know what's going on, and who this Nate - Baze guy is."

Ryan let out a sigh. "He's the father of Cate's child." He waited as the shock registered on Alice's face.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

Back in the studio, Baze had started to speak again. "It's just a simple yes or no Cate…" He knew she was worried about what he was going to say. Lucky for her though, at the last minute he decided to play nice. He figured he had made her sweat long enough, and anyway, he realised he didn't want all of Portland knowing he was a father. Hell, he might not even be a father. "Back in high school, did you lie to me?"

Despite the relief Cate felt at the direct, but discreet words, she also felt a heavy weight collapse on her shoulders, and a sinking feeling in her stomach. The past she had tried to bury away for so many years had finally clawed it's way to the surface. The shaky ground she had tried to fill and build upon since high school was crumbling and the only thing she could do was cling to the truth.

"Yes."


	6. Chapter 6

Everyone's feedback has been really encouraging and positive, which is really great and also very daunting at the same time. Hopefully I can live up to all your expectations (I'm doubtful, but all I can do is try..right?)

Enjoy!

* * *

_Chapter 6_

School was the last thing on her mind as she got on a bus and headed straight home.

Lux still felt upset, but her emotions had settled since she had raced away from the bar, and her father. In fact, a small part of her felt bad at how harsh she had been towards him.

It was just that his response... well, it wasn't exactly what she'd been hoping for, and her emotions had been so fraught.

She allowed her head to rest against the bus window and tried to lose herself to the outside world, the one passing by so quickly.

Before she knew it, her stop was next and she was getting up to hop off.

Reaching home, Lux felt a wave of relief as she dumped her bag by the front door and went straight up to her room. She flopped back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She knew Cate and Ryan would be home soon, as their segment finished in about about 20 minutes. She contemplated leaving and going somewhere else, just so she didn't have to deal with them, but honestly, she felt too drained to even think about getting back up.

So instead she allowed her eyes to close and tried to clear herself all the confusing emotions swirling around in her head.

Twenty minutes later when Ryan and Cate arrived back home, Lux didn't even notice, because she was already asleep.

* * *

"Well, that was one of our more eventful segments." Ryan remarked from behind Cate as she opened up the front door.

Cate let out a sigh, brushing back a stray piece of hair. "Tell me about it."

Ryan let his hands fall on her shoulders as he gently led her into the house. "It'll be alright Cate."

"It's just, I don't get it....how did he find out?" Cate asked perplexed, stepping into the house.

"Someone must have told him." Ryan said, following her in.

"Yeah, but who?" Cate rifled through her memory bank, working her way through all the people who knew her secret.

"Well there's your mum and my parents, but I doubt they would have?" They moved into the kitchen as Ryan put the kettle on, seeking a much needed coffee.

Cate sat down on one of the kitchen stools, her elbows leaning on the bench. Her brow was furrowed as she tried to come up with an answer.

"Maybe it was someone from your high school?" Ryan suggested.

"No…no one in school even knew I was pregnant."

Steam rose from the kettle and Ryan quickly turned it off. "Coffee?" He asked, picking up the kettle and bringing it over to the bench that Cate was leaning on.

He grabbed the coffee beans, and looked up at Cate. "...Babe?"

She didn't respond, and just as Ryan was about to repeat himself, she looked up at him.

When he saw the look on her face, he stopped.

"…Abby." A look of realisation spread across Cate's face. But Ryan shook his head.

"Ryan, come on - she is a serious possibility."

"But why would she do it now, after all this time?"

"I don't know..." Cate trailed off. "But I just have a feeling. I just _know__._" She added, a scowl appearing across her now thinned lips.

"Look, how about you just give her a call first, before you go jumping to conclusions."

"Ryan, I'm not jumping to conclusions. Like you said, the only people that knew were my mum and your parents, _and_ Abby. You know she didn't speak to me for nearly a whole year after she found out Baze was the father? She'd had this obsessive crush on him for like three years…" Cate recalled. "You know, this was probably just her sick little way of getting back at me."

"Call her." Ryan said, handing the phone to Cate.

"Fine." She huffed. "But this isn't going to be pretty."

* * *

"I know it was you Abby!" Cate spoke accusingly down the phone.

Ryan could only hear a muffled response from the receiver, with what he assumed were protests of innocence. He was fairly sure Abby hadn't told Baze, but then again, that woman was a little on the loopy side. But he would reserve judgment until Cate got off the phone.

"I'm hanging up now. I'm hanging up!" And with that, Cate slammed down the phone so hard Ryan nearly spilt his coffee.

He quickly moved around the bench and put an arm around his fiance. "What'd she say?"

"That she didn't do it of course. I don't know, a part of me believes her, but if that's the case, then who? I just can't thin-" Cate stopped speaking. Ryan looked down at Cate, curious at her sudden silence. Again.

Her face was frozen in shock. He suddenly felt uneasy.

"Oh my god."

"What? What is it?" Ryan asked turning her body towards him.

"…It was Lux." Cate said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course it was Lux…she must have found him."

Then without a second thought she grabbed the phone off the counter and punched in her daughter's mobile number.

What both adults did not expect was to hear Lux's phone ring clearly throughout the house.

* * *

She woke to the sound of her phone going off.

Still in the fog between asleep and awake, Lux reached around blindly for her phone. She finally sat up realising that the sound was too distant to be on her bed, or even in her room. Taking a quick look at the clock, she realised she'd only been asleep for half an hour.

Groggily, Lux got up and padded down the steps into the main part of the house. She followed the sound to the front door and was about to reach down to her bag when it stopped ringing. "Damn't." She cursed under breath. She looked at the missed call and saw it was Home. "Wha-"

"Lux…"

Lux spun around quickly. "Mum?"

Cate and Ryan were standing at the end of the passage from the kitchen to the front door. Cate started to walk towards her. Lux gave her a smile, until she saw the look on Cate's face. Then the smile quickly faded.

"Lux, tell me the truth... did you go and see Baze?"

There was no point in lying. "Yeah, I did." Although Lux was now looking down at her feet.

Cate let out a deep sigh. "Okay. At least that's one part solved."

Ryan had moved to stand behind Cate. "Baze called up the station this morning."

"Oh god." Lux looked up, her eyes racing from her mum to Ryan. "I'm so sorry."

"You shouldn't have gone behind our back Lux." Cate said, disappointment and worry laced in her soft tone.

"I know. I'm sorry, it's just…" And then the tears that had been so angrily pushed away earlier came rushing back. Immediately Cate stepped forward and took her daughter in her arms. "Hey, hey it's okay. We're not angry, just a little confused - that's all." Cate whispered into her daughter's hair.

Lux clung onto her mum, the tears now falling freely down her face.

* * *

"So, he didn't say anything to you?"

"Not really. He just kind of... stood there." Lux felt her cheeks turn pink at the embarrassment of her own father's rejection. She looked down to her lap.

"Typical. That is so _typical_ of him." Cate said, oblivious to her daughter's sudden change in mood.

Silence fell over them. Ryan had been called back into work, something about covering an afternoon show, so it was just them.

Lux finally spoke up again. "I'm sorry I went behind your back."

"Babe, it's fine. I'm just angry at Baze now. Seriously, he had the _audacity_ to ring me up at the station, bombarding me in that smug tone, and all this after the encounter he had with you."

"Just forget it mum. Forget him. I don't want anything to do with him anymore."

"Okay." Cate said, giving her daughter a small, reassuring smile. "If that's what you want."

Lux got up. "I think I'm gonna go lie down for a bit. If that's okay?"

"Yeah sure honey. Let me know if you need anything."

Cate watched her daughter get up and walk out of the lounge room.

As soon as she heard Lux's door click shut, Cate quickly got up and grabbed her coat. Lux may be willing to let Baze off the hook, but she sure as hell wasn't.


End file.
